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Guidebook To Japan: What The Other Guidebooks Won't Tell You
Guidebook to Japan: What the Other Guidebooks Won't Tell You offers a candid glimpse into Japanese society rarely found in books or media. Based on over a decade of experience living in Japan, Chavez guides you through the complex culture through essays, cultural tips (called "Sword Tips"), and useful Japanese phrases (called "Sparring Japanese"), to make learning about Japan as fun as possible. Over one hundred essays from The Japan Times, matched with two hundred links to Japan-related websites (from the educational to the bizarre), this book is a vast resource of information. Chavez tells you how to get to a naked festival, how to avoid the Japanese mafia, and how to order "Spaghetti-hold the seaweed." Learn the secrets of Japan in an entire chapter called "What the Japanese don't want you to know." You'll also find a special section on teaching in Japan: what jobs are available, how to get them, and how much money you'll make. In short, all the things you need to know, told by someone who has done it herself.
- GenresNonfiction
413 pages, Paperback
First published January 12, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 15, 2021
Amy Chavez is the classic example of why US citizens need to be educated about the rest of the world. Horribly patronising little book, what more can I say?
August 30, 2011
As the title said, it was funny. But s it usually happened with books like this, there were unnecessary banters that got under my skin. Plenty of them, in fact. Here are excerpts of my favourites from the book but mind you, not all of it is good as these:
Defensive riding
Bicycling is a very popular form of transportation in Japan and I highly recommend you take part. If you go to Nara, Japan's ancient capital, you can visit the temples by bicycle and save yourself aching feet and heat stroke (Kyoto and Nara are extremely hot and humid in summer). The bicycle rental shop will give you a map and a choice of temple routes. A few warnings on bicycle behavior, however.
With sidewalks as the unofficial bicycle lanes in Japan, you’d think there would be more courtesies. Even a few bicycle rules would be helpful. After all, other vehicles have rules. When you drive a car in Japan, you drive on the left side. When you drive a boat, you bear right. But if you ride a bicycle, you ride straight down the middle.
When two bicycles are headed toward each other, the solution should be simple—both should bear left to avoid each other. Instead, the decision to bear left or right is put off until the very last moment. It’s not the actual collisions that are so dangerous, it’s the possible ones. If, at the last minute, you have to bear right, you may mow down the entire family walking to your right. If you have to bear left, you may be forced to head into that pack of junior high school girls. Equally chilling thoughts.
But there is another strategy. After years of observing bicycle behavior, I’ve noticed most oncoming, collision-producing bicyclists fall into one of a few categories. If you can recognize these types before hand, you can predict their behavior and save yourself a few collisions per day.
The Bailer ]The bailer is the easiest type to avoid. Bailers are always women; Men don’t bail. These matronly women, usually wearing a house apron and a sunbonnet securely tied under the chin, have hand protectors on their handlebars and most definitely a skirt guard over the back wheel. When an oncoming bailer approaches, even from afar, you can almost hear her warning sirens go off. As soon as she sees you in her lane she senses imminent danger and jumps off of her bicycle to let you pass. And she’ll do it with that intuitive old lady hop, by kicking both feet off the pedals at the same time and landing neatly on both feet beside her bicycle. She usually bows to you, acknowledging her intrusion into the bicycle lane. Then, with equal fashion, she’ll get back on her bicycle by placing her dainty left foot on the left peddle, coast until the bicycle is stable, then, in a very lady-like fashion, swing her right leg over to the other side. She’ll continue riding until the next oncoming bicyclist comes in which she’ll bail again. Although confusing at first, the bailer is the easiest to avoid because you can be sure that she’ll avoid you first.
The Charlie Brown The Charlie Browns are the wishy-washy people who, as soon as they see you coming, start weaving left and right, confusing you into swerving in the same manner. They’ll bear left for a second, then bear right for a second, then left again, then right again, and continue back and forth until they finally decide on one direction at the last moment. When you see this type coming, don’t look at them and try to do the opposite. Just pick a course, left or right, and stick with it. Thus, you will have made the decision for them and you will pass with ease.
The Bell-Ringer This person is best avoided by escaping down a side street. The bell-ringer is the person who is either late for work or late for the train and is headed full-speed, like a bowling ball headed down an alley for a strike, ready to knock everything and anything out of his way. When you hear the repeated cha-ching, cha-ching bell-ringing, you’ll know to get out of his way as soon as possible.
The Magnet The magnet is the hardest type to avoid. This is the oncoming bicyclist who seems to have a magnet placed somewhere in his body that pulls him toward your bicycle, even though he doesn’t even see you yet. Completely oblivious, his bicycle heads straight towards you with amazing precision. You make a precautionary move to the right, his bicycle moves that direction too. You move to the left, he moves too. He’ll never see you until he runs into you. There is only one way to avoid The Magnet—Bail
Time
I never look at train schedules. I prefer to just arrive at the station and wait for the next train. If I know when the train leaves, I will end up sprinting through the station (taking on the stairs two at a time) and arriving on the platform in a pool of sweat, only to hear the final notes of the train master’s whistle while the train is pulling away.
But not Japanese people–they have an innate ability to know exactly how long it will take to get from one place to the next while subconsciously considering factors such as traffic flow and waiting time at pedestrian crosswalks. Japanese people arrive at the train station and with a mere 30 seconds to spare, walk casually through the station to the platform and board the train just as the doors close behind them.
When it comes to meeting someone, the Japanese people have timing down to a science. The scientific formula is: the Meeting Time minus the Finding Factor. The Finding Factor is a number from 1 to 20, which represents the chances of actually being able to find someone among the crowd at the designated meeting place. The chance of finding someone at Tokyo Dome, for example, is not as great as finding someone at the Parasite Museum. Thus, the Finding Factor of Tokyo Dome is high at 20 while the parasite museum is only 1. The reason fountains are installed at all major railway stations is to give people a place to meet. Meeting people at fountains is relatively easy, earning all fountains a Finding Factor of 2. So, according to the scientific formula, if you are meeting someone at Tokyo Station at 6:00 where the Finding Factor is 20, then you should arrive at the station at 5:40 because it will take you approximately 20 minutes to find the person you are meeting.
If you are driving to pick up someone, then the scientific formula is different: the Traffic Jam Factor multiplied by the Time of Day and the average number of bicyclists who will cross right in front of your car forcing you to jam on your brakes, which is referred to as the Brake Factor. Then square this amount by the amount of time it takes to circle the nearest block. Be sure to leave enough time to circle the block and arrive exactly on time, not 50 seconds before. This method of driving around the block must be an exclusively Japanese time management strategy. Such activity would be considered suspicious in the United States, where someone would call the police immediately.
Japanese people will often wait for you up to an hour. And when you finally arrive, they’ll say something pathetically polite like, “Oh no, it was my fault, for coming on time.” Maybe it is their fault. Foreigners have different ideas of time, which is why there is a different scientific formula for meeting a foreigner. When Japanese are going to meet an American, they should use the above scientific formula then add a 15-30 minute Late Factor. If a Japanese person is going to meet a South American, then they should triple the Late Factor. This is because, in South America, time is much slower, and one day can stretch into one week. Time is negotiable, and people freely add extra minutes and hours as needed.
This is in stark contrast to the Japanese, who run everything as if the world is going to end the next minute. For example, if you get on the right JTB tour, you can easily see all of Japan in one day. If you are willing to pay the extra money, I’m sure they would show you the whole Asian continent in 48 hours. If you choose this tour however, you’d better be on Japanese time because if you’re even a few minutes late they’ll already be in China.
Defensive riding
Bicycling is a very popular form of transportation in Japan and I highly recommend you take part. If you go to Nara, Japan's ancient capital, you can visit the temples by bicycle and save yourself aching feet and heat stroke (Kyoto and Nara are extremely hot and humid in summer). The bicycle rental shop will give you a map and a choice of temple routes. A few warnings on bicycle behavior, however.
With sidewalks as the unofficial bicycle lanes in Japan, you’d think there would be more courtesies. Even a few bicycle rules would be helpful. After all, other vehicles have rules. When you drive a car in Japan, you drive on the left side. When you drive a boat, you bear right. But if you ride a bicycle, you ride straight down the middle.
When two bicycles are headed toward each other, the solution should be simple—both should bear left to avoid each other. Instead, the decision to bear left or right is put off until the very last moment. It’s not the actual collisions that are so dangerous, it’s the possible ones. If, at the last minute, you have to bear right, you may mow down the entire family walking to your right. If you have to bear left, you may be forced to head into that pack of junior high school girls. Equally chilling thoughts.
But there is another strategy. After years of observing bicycle behavior, I’ve noticed most oncoming, collision-producing bicyclists fall into one of a few categories. If you can recognize these types before hand, you can predict their behavior and save yourself a few collisions per day.
The Bailer ]The bailer is the easiest type to avoid. Bailers are always women; Men don’t bail. These matronly women, usually wearing a house apron and a sunbonnet securely tied under the chin, have hand protectors on their handlebars and most definitely a skirt guard over the back wheel. When an oncoming bailer approaches, even from afar, you can almost hear her warning sirens go off. As soon as she sees you in her lane she senses imminent danger and jumps off of her bicycle to let you pass. And she’ll do it with that intuitive old lady hop, by kicking both feet off the pedals at the same time and landing neatly on both feet beside her bicycle. She usually bows to you, acknowledging her intrusion into the bicycle lane. Then, with equal fashion, she’ll get back on her bicycle by placing her dainty left foot on the left peddle, coast until the bicycle is stable, then, in a very lady-like fashion, swing her right leg over to the other side. She’ll continue riding until the next oncoming bicyclist comes in which she’ll bail again. Although confusing at first, the bailer is the easiest to avoid because you can be sure that she’ll avoid you first.
The Charlie Brown The Charlie Browns are the wishy-washy people who, as soon as they see you coming, start weaving left and right, confusing you into swerving in the same manner. They’ll bear left for a second, then bear right for a second, then left again, then right again, and continue back and forth until they finally decide on one direction at the last moment. When you see this type coming, don’t look at them and try to do the opposite. Just pick a course, left or right, and stick with it. Thus, you will have made the decision for them and you will pass with ease.
The Bell-Ringer This person is best avoided by escaping down a side street. The bell-ringer is the person who is either late for work or late for the train and is headed full-speed, like a bowling ball headed down an alley for a strike, ready to knock everything and anything out of his way. When you hear the repeated cha-ching, cha-ching bell-ringing, you’ll know to get out of his way as soon as possible.
The Magnet The magnet is the hardest type to avoid. This is the oncoming bicyclist who seems to have a magnet placed somewhere in his body that pulls him toward your bicycle, even though he doesn’t even see you yet. Completely oblivious, his bicycle heads straight towards you with amazing precision. You make a precautionary move to the right, his bicycle moves that direction too. You move to the left, he moves too. He’ll never see you until he runs into you. There is only one way to avoid The Magnet—Bail
Time
I never look at train schedules. I prefer to just arrive at the station and wait for the next train. If I know when the train leaves, I will end up sprinting through the station (taking on the stairs two at a time) and arriving on the platform in a pool of sweat, only to hear the final notes of the train master’s whistle while the train is pulling away.
But not Japanese people–they have an innate ability to know exactly how long it will take to get from one place to the next while subconsciously considering factors such as traffic flow and waiting time at pedestrian crosswalks. Japanese people arrive at the train station and with a mere 30 seconds to spare, walk casually through the station to the platform and board the train just as the doors close behind them.
When it comes to meeting someone, the Japanese people have timing down to a science. The scientific formula is: the Meeting Time minus the Finding Factor. The Finding Factor is a number from 1 to 20, which represents the chances of actually being able to find someone among the crowd at the designated meeting place. The chance of finding someone at Tokyo Dome, for example, is not as great as finding someone at the Parasite Museum. Thus, the Finding Factor of Tokyo Dome is high at 20 while the parasite museum is only 1. The reason fountains are installed at all major railway stations is to give people a place to meet. Meeting people at fountains is relatively easy, earning all fountains a Finding Factor of 2. So, according to the scientific formula, if you are meeting someone at Tokyo Station at 6:00 where the Finding Factor is 20, then you should arrive at the station at 5:40 because it will take you approximately 20 minutes to find the person you are meeting.
If you are driving to pick up someone, then the scientific formula is different: the Traffic Jam Factor multiplied by the Time of Day and the average number of bicyclists who will cross right in front of your car forcing you to jam on your brakes, which is referred to as the Brake Factor. Then square this amount by the amount of time it takes to circle the nearest block. Be sure to leave enough time to circle the block and arrive exactly on time, not 50 seconds before. This method of driving around the block must be an exclusively Japanese time management strategy. Such activity would be considered suspicious in the United States, where someone would call the police immediately.
Japanese people will often wait for you up to an hour. And when you finally arrive, they’ll say something pathetically polite like, “Oh no, it was my fault, for coming on time.” Maybe it is their fault. Foreigners have different ideas of time, which is why there is a different scientific formula for meeting a foreigner. When Japanese are going to meet an American, they should use the above scientific formula then add a 15-30 minute Late Factor. If a Japanese person is going to meet a South American, then they should triple the Late Factor. This is because, in South America, time is much slower, and one day can stretch into one week. Time is negotiable, and people freely add extra minutes and hours as needed.
This is in stark contrast to the Japanese, who run everything as if the world is going to end the next minute. For example, if you get on the right JTB tour, you can easily see all of Japan in one day. If you are willing to pay the extra money, I’m sure they would show you the whole Asian continent in 48 hours. If you choose this tour however, you’d better be on Japanese time because if you’re even a few minutes late they’ll already be in China.
June 30, 2013
Too "funny" to be useful, too "travel info" like to be very descriptive or personal. I only gave it the 3 intro chapters before I gave up. Maybe it got better later.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews